[Callers] Hand Turns & Safety

[Bree Kalb]

This is a long term project of mine: to teach and encourage what I call
“the physical therapist approved” way to Allemande. I don’t seem to be
making much progress so am delighted that others care about it, too.

On Fri, May 17, 2019 at 8:55 PM Martha Wild via Callers <
callers at lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:

> Hear, hear! My sentiments exactly! How on earth are you supposed to “give
> weight” (in the proper way, just a tiny bit so you are both part of a unit)
> and get around each other with a flat, palm to palm contact? The only way
> that works is that people bend their wrists so that they have some purchase
> on the other person. Which hurts my now no longer flat wrist! So wrong,
> painfully wrong. Please, please, please, stop teaching a flat hand
> allemande. It doesn’t work. Curved fingers, straight wrist, the thumb is
> just sort of loose and not doing much. Thank you for bringing that up, Erik!
> Martha
>
> On May 17, 2019, at 3:01 PM, Erik Hoffman via Callers <
> callers at lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
>
> John Sweeny below hoped we callers would teach more about hand turns and
> the like.
>
> I’ve been thinking on this for quite a while. Years ago I had a discussion
> with Brad Foster. We both lamented the loss of the allemande with mildly
> interlocking thumbs to the modern overprotective thumb against the side of
> the palm allemande. At that time I think I was still in Santa Barbara, thus
> it must have been pre 1994. I wrote an article for our dance rag called,
> “If Allemande Left, Where’d Allemande Go?”
>
> I talked about what I do when someone grips my hand—and I think all of us
> should remove that word, “grip” from our caller’s vocabulary…
>
> But the most important thing I discussed is:
>
>    - Our Wrist is Strongest When It’s Straight
>    - Our Fingers are Strongest When Curved
>    - Thus, however one does an allemande, it should be a hook, with
>    curved fingers and a straight wrist.
>
>
> Lately I’ve seen teachers promote the straight fingers, bent wrist, and
> flat palm method. The almost always makes one person’s wrist uncomfortable.
> Not as bad as when someone draws the others hand into that
> almost-Aikido-put-them-on-the-ground position, but usually quite
> uncomfortable.
>
> Thus I hope most of us learn the curved fingers, straight wrist, no grip,
> and, no thumb clamping allemande, ECD hand turn, two hand turn type hand
> connections.
>
> ~Erik Hoffman,
>    Oakland, CA
>
> *From:* Callers <callers-bounces at lists.sharedweight.net> *On Behalf Of *John
> Sweeney via Callers
> *Sent:* Friday, May 17, 2019 2:09 PM
> *To:* 'Caller's discussion list' <callers at sharedweight.net>
> *Subject:* Re: [Callers] Name that Dance
>
> Hi Rich,
>               I would just call it a “Big Set Mixer”.  It is a slight
> variation of the one in the Community Dances Manual.  Callers just make up
> a 32 bar sequence that works for their dancers.
>
>               While it is a good example of all ages having fun together,
> I really wish callers would teach the dancers just a tiny bit about how to
> do better hand/arm turns and swings :-)
>
>             Happy dancing,
>                    John
>
> John Sweeney, Dancer, England   john at modernjive.com 01233 625 362 & 07802
> 940 574
> http://contrafusion.co.uk/KentCeilidhs.html for Live Music
> Ceilidhs
> http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent
>
> http://www.modernjive.com for Modern Jive DVDs
>
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